Diary

· Hats off, first, to the promising young Lib Dem leader, a man forged in the white heat of a previous technological revolution and, it would seem, considerably more up to speed than most of us with the increasingly confusing advances of the present one. When they are not watching their television sets, Sir Ming told BBC News 24 firmly yesterday, people "should turn the pilot light off". Bless.

· A sincere thank you, meanwhile, to the 248 (approx) readers who spotted the deliberate mistake in Friday's column. This was, of course, our reference to a fine toothcomb rather than a fine-tooth comb. What a clever - and caring! - bunch you are.

· In late-breaking news from this weekend's Scottish Conservative party conference, we see someone has had the temerity to ask devout Dave Cameron whether all those widely publicised church visits mean he actually believes Jesus died to save us from our sins. Said Dave (and we quote): "Uh, I think, um, you keep asking this sort of odd question of me as I wander around places. I think we'll, we'll leave it for a while." That's just the kind of straight answer to a tricky question that our nation has come to expect from its next-PM-but-one, you'll agree, and anyone suggesting the Tory leader's regular church attendance may merely be a cynical attempt to court the Christian vote is clearly well wide of the mark.

· Overheard, at the Gay Hussar restaurant in London's Soho last week, über-journo and author Francis Wheen and Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant, apparently discussing a musical version of Mr Wheen's prize-winning biography of Karl Marx, with one of the Fiennes brothers in the starring role. Sounds distinctly promising.

· According to an online discussion board for A-level media studies teachers, the Arab cable news channel Al-Jazeera is funded by "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-il, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Myra Hindley, Adolf Hitler, Mephistopheles, George Galloway, Jade Goody, Arthur Scargill, Keir Hardie and Rose West, plus the profits made from selling crack cocaine in the playgrounds of smalltown America to toddlers who are unable to resist it because of subliminal messages contained in the channel's so-called 'programmes'." We didn't know Mel Phillips had branched out into teaching. Arf.

· Spotted, rather thrillingly, taking his celebrated eyebrows for a stroll on Hampstead Heath at the weekend, the celebrated author of espionage novels Mr John Le Carré. We feel quite faint with excitement.

· In further important ecclesiastical news, we're delighted to see that St Albans church in Redcar has a website featuring no fewer than 128 fine jokes, including a marvellous one about two policemen walking down a street who see a completely naked man coming towards them with a completely naked woman on his back. "Hello, hello," say the boys in blue, "what's going on 'ere then?" "We're off to a fancy dress party," says the feller. "I'm going as a tortoise, and this is Michelle."

· Worrying times for Bedfordshire county council, now, which in yet more important ecclesiastical news has invited all its members - indeed, everyone in Bedfordshire - to "join the Christian Fellowship in prayer support for our upcoming inspection by the Audit Commission". Have things really reached such a pitch?

· Ennobled TV tart and luxuriantly moustached fertility guru Lord Winston has cleverly identified a major obstacle to Lords reform. Advised last week that there are more than 200 asbestos sites in the house, he frets that "the presence of asbestos remaining in the Palace of Westminster will inhibit people from standing for election to the Lords". Hereditaries, obviously, are immune. Perhaps we'd better hang on to them after all.

· BBC3, we see, will mark the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery with a documentary about black men's penises. Smart thinking.